violet — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A plant or flower of the genus Viola, especially the fragrant Viola odorata; (inexact) similar-looking plants and flowers.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Refreshed by their cooling bath of evening dew, the violets and other nocturnal flowers emitted a pleasant fragrance over the fields, but from the bogs and the rivulets came up now and then damp, penetrating gusts, that sent an icy chill through me.

   Albertus Magnus, the thirteenth century philosopher and occultist, states that coriander, valerian, and violet are love producing herbs.

2. A person thought to resemble V. odorata, especially in its beauty and delicacy.

   Usage

   • Figurative

   Examples

   ‘Tom,’ he said, ‘you are looking at a crushed violet, a spent egg, a squeezed tube.’

3. The color of most violets; the colour evoked by the shortest visible wavelengths between 380 and 435 nm, an additive tertiary colour.

4. Clothes and (ecclesiastical) vestments of such a colour.

5. The characteristic scent of V. odorata.

6. Synonym of onion (“vegetable”).

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • dialectal

Adjective

1. Of a violet colour.

   Related words

   gentamiciniodineiodopsinioliteiononeadder’s tonguecudbearrainbowrockettrout lilywild pansy

Adjective

1. of a color intermediate between red and blue

   Synonyms

   purplepurplish

Noun

1. any of numerous low-growing violas with small flowers

   Broader terms

   viola

2. a variable color that lies beyond blue in the spectrum

   Synonyms

   reddish blue

   Broader terms

   purplepurpleness